Sawt el Atlas

If you love traditional Oriental music blending rai, reggae, funk and Latino beats, you mustn't miss Sawt El Atlas. And if you're not yet into that kind of music, you will be soon!

Fronted by the warm voices of singers Kamel and Mounir, the ten-piece band are genuine party animals and have a gift for sweeping audiences off their feet. Sawt El Atlas' sophisticated new album Donia draws increasingly deeply on their multicultural inspiration. As Sawt El Atlas like to say: "In Morocco, they look on us as French people, and in France, as Moroccans. Although we have two cultures, we don't belong to either country specifically."

The original line-up of Sawt El Atlas consisted of three brothers from each of two families, the Mirghanis (originally from Southern Morocco) and the El Habchis (from Casablanca). They were later joined by four other musicians. Lead singers Kamel and Mounir and their brothers grew up in the suburbs of Blois in the centre of France. —Courtesy Calabash Music